The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. THURSDAY, JULY 20, 1910. AFTER THE WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 172, 20 July 1916, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

THURSDAY, JULY 20, 1910. AFTER THE WAR.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that tec can io.

The committee appointed l>y Mr. Asquith. to consider after-war commercial and industrial policy lias a vast order of reference. Its investigations will cover the recommendations of the recent Economic Conference of the Allies in Paris. It is to inquire what industries are essential to tile future safety of the nation, and how they should be established; the development of the Empire's resources and the prevention of foreign control; and the recovery of trade lost during the war. As the members of the committee under Lord Faringdon, appointed recently to consider the question of State financial aid to British firms after the war, have been appointed members of this large committee, evidently this important matter is included in the scope of the inquiries. The whole field is so important that we may again refer to eorae specific instances of the dangerous condition of things which the war revealed, and. of the handicaps under which British trade has laboured for many years. Our readers will remember the revelations- in Australia as to the control of essential metals by Germans. But what happened in Burma in regard to the mining of tungeten will be new to most of them. Tungsten is found in wolfram ore, and is used in producing high-speed steel for machine tools, and in steel for guns and armour-plate. One small district in Burma is capable of supplying half the requirements of the world, yet when the war broke out the whole of the output from this district— 2300 tons out of a total world consump-tion-of 0000 tone—went to Germany. Alhough tungsten woe an essential element in f the making of munitions we were actually giving the ore to the Germans and buying back the finished product from factories in Germany. This is one example of what Mr. Hughes calls "the criminal error of building up our industries upon a foundation controlled by the enemy." It is also a revelation of the undeveloped resources of the Empire. The "Timee," to which, we are indebted for ihese farts, mentions another instance of German control 'in India. A few years ago Germans found on the coast of Trnvancore twelve square miles of deposits of monazitc, and when the war* broUc. out. they ; weni tho entire output in the interests 01 the gasmantle industry. It is stated that India could produce enough cane to swamp the sugar-markets of the world, and that in

Burma alone areas within economic range of river transport CouKl produce annually twelve million tons of paper pulp. These are two or three examples of that development or the Empire's resources which the new committee will consider. It has been a general principle of the British Government that it should not directly help "tntders in ■• competition witlr foreigners. The help that the Board of Trade gave consisted principally in reports. The idea was that the freer trade was from Government interference the more it flourished. How far the Government will go in the direction, of assisting traders financially, after the manner of some other countries, one cannot say, but that there will be a change of policy seems certain; The appointment of a committee to consider methods of giving such assistance points that way. Indeed it is impossible to see how the recommendations of the Economic Conference, which the British Government have adopted, can be carried out unless the Government breaks ■with custom and adopts some of the methods of its rivals. Sir Thomas Mackenzie recently gave an interesting example of the way in which German methoda favoured German manufacturers in competition, with British. Pottery clay procured in Britain used to be delivered at factories in Germany at less cost than at factories in Britain itself. The explanation is that whereas the raw material in England was sent over ■privately-owned railways, in Germany it was carried over State-owned lines, and the charges were in favour of German manufacturers. The goods made from this clay were railed to the German a minimum cost over the same railways, making a second handicap against the. British manufacturer. ISrom the port these goods were carried to a neutral market in a enbsidised steamer, at a lower freight than that paid, by the British firm. British shipowners were induced, to carry German goods at a lower rates than Britisli -goods by threat of competition with the help of a subsidy from the German Government.

The above, of course, is a mild example of German trade methods, it cannot, be too strongly emphasised that, in the words of the greatest English chemist of his day, "Germany's methods in trade have. been, and are,, as far as possible, identical with, her methods in. war." There is a Trade Council in Geimany which, acting ac a rule independently of the Beichetag, has practical control of duties, bounties and freighte. Sir William. Ramaay. gives what' he calls a simple example of ite operations:—"A certain English, firm had a 'fairly profitable monopoly ■ in' a chemical product which it had maintained for many years. It was not a patented article, but. one lor which the

firm 'had discovered a good process oT manufacture. About six years ago-this firm found that its Liverpool custom was being transferred to German makers. On inquiry it transpired that the freight on this particular article from Hamburg to Liverpool had been lowered. The firm considered its position, and by introducing economies it found that it could etill compete at a' profit. A year later German manufacturers lowered the price substantially, so that the English firm could not sell without making a dead loss. It transpired that the lowering of the price was due to a heavy export bounty being paid to the German manufacturers by the German State." In other words, Germany bring 3 "the heavy machinery of State to bear on the minutiae of commerce.' , It is this kind of competition against which the Empire has to guard itself. After the war our German rivals -ill still be hacked by the State, ant; "they will, ac they have done before, steal onr inventions, use trickery and fraud to oust us from world markets, and we know now that we need not expect any bargain to be binding." Xo matter what its principles may have been, a State governed with any wisdom ennnot allow its traders to continue to fight unarmed against such a. .lpotition. U is the business of the new committee to help to design the armour.